which processor?

The quad core is a no brainer

Matt  so what laptops are you looking at?  Something off the shelf or custom made?  I'm looking also.

Neil

mrneil2


Matt  so what laptops are you looking at?  Something off the shelf or custom made?  I'm looking also.

Neil

off the shelf, HP 8560w -- but unsure about how to configure it.  So far, it looks like it's better to go for the quad core i7, even though it has lower speed than the dual core i7.  My ears are open for further advice...
 
Matt

Hey Beep,I'm not sure about the US,but in Oz,the price of Intel CPU's never drops,even 3 year old Xeons,are the same price,as when they were released!

Good call on the 2600k,as Ivy has been proven[by Scott from ADK's Benchmarking]to be not wildly better,and due to heat[ivy's have a lower T-Case limit]it makes them more unstable to overclock,whereas the Sandy B.'s can overclock,without any hassle at all.

I actually don't need to overclock mine[my projects really only have a handfull of tracks] it's just I got a pretty good CPU cooler with my desktop,and 4.6GHz is as simple as changing the "multiplier" in the Gigabyte BIOS from 34 to 46,[plus a losing a few C-State settings,as they mess with the "throttling"]and I don't touch the "Front Side Bus" or the voltages[like one had to previously apparently]and its as stable as could be,but lightning fast,and my temps Never go above 40c,even when "Geekbenching" it[around 14,000].

I can't see a need to upgrade for quite a while,but pretty soon the 2011 socket will be the only one with new chips,as I think Ivy is the last upgrade for the 1155,due to it only having "dual channel" memory[which is still more than enough ATM].

To the OP,it's a little bit of a weird time to shop for a latest laptop,as the newer model of my Dell XPS 15",only comes with a 5,400 rpm HDD[too slow for audio]and my 2011 model actually seems better,but due to Sonar being able to make use of "Hyperthreading" definitely go for a "Quad i7"as the i5's don't have H.T.
Cheers
Bob